17 Real Stories That Were So Horrible That They Were Made Into Movies

149SharesShare on FacebookShare on TwitterAdd to Favorites.Remove from Favorites.Send an E-mail.

Did you ever stop to think that the reason why the horror movies you watched are successful? Could it be because they were based on real stories? Well, apparently they are. BuzzFeed asked its users for the scariest movies that are based on a true story. Here are the terrifying results.

1. Child's Play (1988)

Chucky is based on a real toy: Robert the Doll. In the early 1900s, a Florida kid received Robert as a gift and soon learned it was a life-size voodoo doll. But unlike Chucky, it isn't possessed by the spirit of a serial killer. Now Robert sits in a glass case, but if you bother him, prepare to feel his wrath.

3. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

This spooky ’70s movie is loosely based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, which plagued the small Texas town of Texarkana from Feb. 22 to May 3, 1946. The "Phantom Killer" preyed on young couples in parked cars. The murders remain unsolved.

4. Zodiac (2007)

In the ’60s and ’70s, the Zodiac Killer murdered seven people and then sent cryptic letters to authorities to taunt them about his identity. The case is still unsolved, and this movie is about a reporter trying to figure out who the dude was.

5. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Wes Craven said he got the idea for a monster who kills people in their sleep from a news story in Laos, where men were literally dying of fright because of how terrifying their dreams were. Holy shit.

6. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

The weird-ass movie about cannibals living in the hills of Nevada is based on the Sawney Bean clan — a group of cannibals who were thought to have lived in a cave in 16th-century Scotland. They'd rob and eat villagers, and they murdered over a thousand people. (So this is more of a ~tall tale~ but it's still SCARY, OK?!)

7. Wolf Creek (2005)

Wolf Creek is based on the backpacker murders carried out by Ivan Milat and Bradley John Murdoch between 1989–93 in Australia. IRL, the bodies of seven backpackers were discovered in Belanglo State Forest, and in the movie, a group of backpackers come face-to-face with a deranged murderer.

8. The Witch (2016)

While this movie is based on the witches who were tried during Puritan times, the man behind The Witch did extensive research to make this film more true to what happened during those times — and that's what makes this movie freaky as HELL.

9. The Possession (2012)

So this movie's about a dybbuk box, aka a box haunted by a malicious spirit. Got it? Great. Apparently in real life some little girl opened one and all hell broke loose and demons attached to her. So don't go buying spooky boxes, K?

10. Jaws (1975)

In the summer of 1916, a giant great white shark took five people as its victims off the Jersey Shore. These attacks were said to have been the inspiration for the most infamous shark film franchise of all time.

11. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

In 1966–67, residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, claimed to see a giant, winged creature with glowing red eyes. Then, when a local bridge collapsed, leaving 46 dead, the "Mothman" never appeared again. Coincidence? Who knows.

12. The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Lutz family moved into their beloved Amityville, New York, house in December 1975, where a slew of murders happened only a year prior, and now the their story is infamous. Sure, people are skeptical, but it's still a fun tale.

13. The Conjuring (2013)

The movie is based on the story of the real demonic haunting of the Perron family in Rhode Island in the ’70s, and the oldest daughter says her family actually suffered from the hauntings for nine years. NINE.

14. /A Haunting In Connecticut (2009)

The real-life haunting in Connecticut is very true to the film: Mom Carmen Reed moved to a former funeral home for a few years to be closer to her son's cancer treatment center, and while they lived there, "malevolent forces" would slap, grope, and threaten them.

15. The Exorcist (1973)

The 1949 St. Louis exorcism of a boy named Roland Doe inspired what is now one of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. Except unlike the film, the real exorcism took several months to complete. MONTHS, folks!!

17. The Strangers (2008)

The Strangers is about a couple who gets taunted all night in their cabin in the woods by three masked strangers. This horrifyingly realistic movie is supposedly based on the 1981 Keddie murders, an unsolved quadruple homicide that happened in a cabin in the woods of California.